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Monday, November 17, 2014

Wider Than Tall

11/17/14 India ink, twig, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Driving through my neighborhood, I spotted a black locust
tree with an asymmetrical shape that might have been natural but was more
likely due to the nearby power lines. Still, it isn’t nearly as haphazardly
chopped as most trees I’ve been sketching. It still retains its gracefully wide
reach.

11/17/14 India ink, twig, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Its reach, in fact, is so wide that my first attempt
(at left) wouldn’t fit properly on the sketchbook page. Somewhere in my brain is
the incorrect “knowledge” that trees are taller than they are wide. After I saw
that my sketch wasn’t proportioned correctly, I sight-sized closely and
realized that this tree is, in fact,
a little wider than it is tall. I tried again, this time using a full sketchbook
spread.